Known rail vehicle consists (e.g., trains) include automatic engine start/stop (AESS) devices that automatically turn off engines of the train when the engines have been in idle for at least a designated time period. These devices are used to conserve fuel when the engines are not being actively used to propel the consists for at least the designated time period.
At times, operators of the consists may relinquish control of the consists to a remote location (e.g., a control tower in a rail yard) so that the operators can add or remove cars to the consists, setup the locomotives for an upcoming trip, or the like. During these operations, the engines of the locomotives typically are placed in idle. Due to the length of time needed to perform these operations, however, the engines may automatically be turned off by the AESS devices. The operators may need to repeatedly manually restart the engines.
Currently, due to the manual intervention required to reactivate engines of the vehicles in a vehicle system during operations where the vehicles are remotely controlled, many operators are known to turn off AESS devices off while operating in both the onboard control mode and the remote control mode. As a result, the engines of a vehicle system may needlessly remain in idle or another low output mode when in onboard control mode and end up wasting fuel.